The present invention relates to a method of operating a vending-type machine for goods and/or services, with the machine having a computer that is connected via a data communication line with a central computer located in a central office. The machine further includes a bill-checking mechanism, which is followed directly by a bill-processing device that has a cash box, as well as a printer, which, upon interruption of a payment procedure after the transfer of at least one bill into the cash box, prints out a promissory note or voucher for the equivalent of the received bill as proof of entitlement for receiving a refund in the central office. The present invention also relates to a vending-type machine of the aforementioned general type for carrying out the inventive method.
Various embodiments of vending-type machines for goods and/or services are known. Such machines serve on the one hand for the sale of goods, especially beyond the normal hours of operation, for example in the form of so-called automated fuel pumps for dispensing liquid fuel. On the other hand, vending-type machines for services are used to determine individual periods of use, for example in a parking garage or at a swimming pool, and to settle the account of a respective user.
The goods or services are paid for by depositing coins and bills; with some vending-type machines, credit cards can also be used for payment. Not only the coins but also the bills are checked to see if they are genuine prior to transferring them to the respective cash box of the machine. Counterfeit money is returned immediately after the checking process, so that a user cannot utilize such a vending-type machine to exchange counterfeit money for genuine money.
Since with the heretofore known vending-type machines for goods and/or services it must be possible to interrupt a payment process, for example because the customer no longer desires the goods or because the type of payment for services attempted by the customer cannot be carried out, the known machines are equipped with intermediate cash boxes from which, upon interruption of a payment process, the money that has already been paid in is returned to the customer. However, such intermediate cash boxes for vending-type machines that are equipped with a bill-processing device are extremely complicated and expensive.
For this reason, with a number of vending-type machines that are equipped with bill-processing devices yet have no intermediate cash box for the collected bills, a voucher is issued on which the equivalent value for paid bills is printed upon the interruption of a payment process. Upon presentation of this voucher at the central office with which a particular vending-type machine is associated, the customer receives the cash equivalent for the bills received by the machine.
Since such vouchers can be produced with little capital expenditure, depending upon the printing process and the nature of the cards used for the vouchers, the possibility exists for the theft of very high sums of money due to forgery of vouchers. Based on the new statutory liability regulations, unforeseeable rights to compensation can result against the manufacturer of the vending-type machine.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a vending-type machine for goods and/or services of the aforementioned general type, as well as a vending-type machine for carrying out this method, whereby, despite the absence of an intermediate cash box for bills that have been received, fraud due to falsified or forged vouchers is precluded.